Invader Zim: Might of the Empire
by Tallest Magox
Summary: A little story I'm writing as an attempt to expand upon the IZ universe. The story focuses a lot on some of the secondary charcters in the series, though everyone's favorite psychotic alien and insane robot will be making often enough appearences.
1. Chapter 1

Invader Zim: Might of the Empire

Chapter 1: The Planetary Sweep

The doors to The Massive's onboard auditorium and viewing station opened to allow a swarm of irken soldiers, scientists, and dignitaries inside. The green-skinned aliens quickly piled into the seating areas, which, once full, proceeded to rise off the ground slightly in order to give the audience a better view of the main stage. There was only ever one time that the Tallests opened up their private viewing room to the public, and that was when a new planet was about to fall into the hands of the empire. Many in the audience now were surprised to have found out earlier today that a planetary sweep was scheduled to occur, as everyone who stayed up to date on the progress the invaders were making knew that another planet wasn't scheduled to fall for at least a month.

As the last of the viewing platforms was filled, a cadre of honor guards wielding rather painful looking shock spears dropped down from above using jetpacks and took up a defensive perimeter around the stage. Moments later, the Tallests themselves began their descent, which immediately caused an uproar of cheering and applause which only grew louder as the platform neared the ground.

"Yes. Yes. Thank you! Thank You!" Tallest Red said as he and Purple waved to the audience.

"Almighty Tallests rule!" A random voiced called out from above the cheers.

"Yes, yes we do!" Purple called back. "And thank you!"

As the Tallests' platform came into contact with the stage, the crowd instantly grew silent- well, accept for one guy who was late on the notice, who received a few elbows to the ribs.

"Greetings, fellow irkens!" Red started the speech after clearing his throat. "We, your almighty and powerful rulers, would just like to start by saying thanks for dropping everything you had planned tonight and coming to personally view the empire's latest acquisition."

"It's gonna be a great show! Woo!" Purple added in, electing a short cheer from the audience.

"Yes it is," Red continued on. "Now, you're probably wondering why we're suddenly doing a sweep on a planet that was previously not singled out for conquest-"

"Officially!" Purple interrupted. "That's because it was actually a secret assignment! Yeah. So, surprise!"

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Red said as The Massive adjusted its orbit to bring the planet below into view and two huge monitors also flickered on to display the doomed world. "I give you, PLANET EARTH!"

A huge gasp erupted from the gathered Irkens. The hell was planet Earth? Not that it really mattered; a new conquest was a new conquest, so the crowd quickly resumed their fanatical cheering.

"And let's give it up for the brave invader who completed this secret mission!" Red said as he gestured towards a platform floating towards the stage. "Here he is! INVADER SKOODGE! The first invader in Operation Impending Doom Two history to successfully conquer not one, but TWO planets!"

The cheering continued as the stout Irken crossed onto the main stage and posed before the sudden arrival of floating cameras live-feeding the proceedings all across the empire.

"Invader Skoodge rules!" another anonymous voice pierced through the crowd.

"Are you SURE it's okay to give this guy ANOTHER award ceremony?" Purple whispered to Red as the crowd continued cheering Skoodge on.

"He was the only guy in the area who wasn't ZIM! Would you have rather given it to him?" Red's response caused purple to visibly gag, which he quickly followed up with a nod of agreement.

"Besides," Red continued in his mind. "He might be a short, ugly excuse for an invader, but he's proven to be a very effective short, ugly excuse for an invader."

"Hello everyone!' Skoodge said with a wave to the crowd. "Great to see you all again. Before we begin, I just wanted to say-"

"Yes, well, good job Skoodge," Purple butted in and nudged the much shorter irken slightly out of the center of the stage. "Now who's ready to light this candlestick?"

The crowd cheered once more as the monitors switched to a viewing of the rest of the fleet moving into planetary sweep formation.

"So, have we decided what we're going to do with this one?" Purple whispered to Red yet again.

"Eh, beats me. Might be nice to have a shipyard out on this side of the galaxy."

"Parking structure planet. Got it." Purple said with a nod as he and Red turned to face the screen themselves. The last of the armada had just pulled up to the planet, as every ship began concentrating a beam of energy in their main cannons. After an extended minute deliberately planned to build up the suspense, each ship fired in sync with one and other, causing enormous pillars of energy to crash down onto the planet's surface. Just as the second round of bombardment was beginning, the display monitors suddenly cut to an automatic warning sequence.

"WARNING! Collision imminent!" The robotic voice announced to the crowd, causing the entire room to be filled with a sudden panic.

"What!" Red suddenly opened a communication line with the bride of The Massive. "What's going on? I thought we cleared the area of all nearby deb-"

The Tallest's question was cut short by a Voot Cruiser suddenly crashing through one of the viewports, plowing through an entire seating section of the audience and getting at least a dozen individuals sucked out into the vacuum of space before an emergency blast door came down and resealed the room.

"We come in peace!" A high pitched voice escaped from the personal ship as the top opened up to reveal a SIR unit, who proceeded to run around the room and steal food from the audience members who were fortunate enough to have not been seated near the right side viewport.

"Oh god!" Red said as a look of absolute horror took over his face. "That's Zim's SIR unit!"

Purple's expression quickly altered itself to mirror Red's. "Then, that means-"

"I'm sorry I'm late, my Tallest. I can't believe that I didn't receive a notification that the celebration of my MOST GLORIOUS conquest was happening today. Those guys down in Communications must be slacking off again." The shortest and by far most reviled invader ever in the empire's history said as he stepped out from under the rubble his ship had created. "Now then, POINT ME TO THE NACHOS!"


	2. Chapter 2

Invader Zim: Might of the Empire.

Chapter 2: Reassignment

Zim dusted a few random bits of debris from his uniform, before smiling widely and descending the mountain of shattered glass and crushed bodies that were currently surrounding his personal ship.

"I was thinking for my celebratory parade back on Irk, we could go with skip the whole parade thing and go straight to the part where I get a giant gold statue of myself erected next to the honorary plaque declaring me AS THE GREATEST INVADER WHO EVER LI-"

The egotistical alien missed the last of the makeshift steps leading down from his ship, causing him to slip and fall face first into a puddle of green ichor that had pooled around the mangled remains of the unlucky irkens his ship was now parked on top of.

"ARGH! STUPID INSIGNIFICANT PUDDLE! HOW DARE YOU COAT THE GLORIOUS IMAGE WHICH IS ZIM WITH YOUR STUPID, SMELLY GOO!" Zim began to kick at the puddle of blood aggressively, splashing the nearby audience members who had been just a seat or two away from getting crushed or sucked into the vacuum of space. "Now where was I?" he paused after he decided that the offending bodily fluids had been punished for their heinous actions. "Ah, yes! I would like the plaque to read-"

Zim's train of thought was suddenly derailed as his eyes got a clearer picture of his surroundings. His view drifted from place to place around the auditorium. The first thing he noticed was the complete lack of his favorite snacks, when he had sent a long list to the Tallests months ago to have prepared for him once Earth was conquered. He then picked out the image of Skoodge standing center stage surrounded by a pile of confetti, who gave him a friendly wave. Finally, he looked up at the giant digital banner hanging from the ceiling which read: HOORAY FOR INVADER SKOODGE! in big bold letters.

"Hey wait a minute…" Zim said as his mind processed what he just saw. "You guys spelled my name wrong! And where are the nachos? ZIM cannot celebrate his greatest triumph without nachos!"

"Crap! Think fast, Red! You knew something like this was going to happen!" The Tallest began frantically racking his brain for a possible way out of the current situation. "He's going to get it through his thick skull eventually that this isn't for him, and when he does… unless…"

A smug grin suddenly appeared on Tallest Red's face as he floated over towards the edge of the stage

"Well Zim, we were originally planning to have one big party for both you and Skoodge-"

"What? But I'm the one who did all of the work! The honorary plaque is to be MINE AND MINE ALONE!" Zim blurted in protest.

"-which why we decided that since you are such a superior invader, we were going to commission a brand new battleship for you to ride back to Irk."

Purple snickered as he heard that last part. "Yeah, like that would happen."

"Hmm," Zim mused over the prospect for a moment. "Yes, a brand new flagship would be most worthy to celebrate my GLORIOUS victory on. TAKE ME TO IT IMMEDIATELY! I bet it's easily twice the size of The Massive!"

"Ah, the problem is that a Meekorb strike force seized control of the shipyard that was building it, and we need you, the 'greatest invader ever', to go there immediately and eliminate the opposition."

"So! The vile Meekorb think they can deprive ZIM of his new flagship? WELL THEY ARE WRONG! Thank you My Tallest for allowing me the opportunity to personally exact revenge against those… HORRIBLE energy creatures. I Shall depart IMMEDIATELY! Come GIR!"

"Adventure!" The defective SIR unit jumped with excitement from head to head of the remaining audience members until he returned to his master's side, his tower of stolen snacks balanced perfectly on his flat-topped head.

"Uh, Zim? Your Voot Cruiser looks a little beat up, why don't you take one of the Spittle Runners in the hanger and I'll send you the coordinates to the shipyard." Red added in as Zim was about to climb back into his ship.

"Oh, Thank you my Tallest, I promise to not let you down!" Zim said as he grabbed ahold of GIR and ran out of the room and down to one of the two hanger bays along The Massive's exterior.

As soon as the small irken had left the room, Tallest Red quickly burst into uncontrollable laughter, which lasted almost a minute straight.

"Man, that was so hard to say with a straight face!" Red said between huge gasps for air.

"Well everyone, that's our show for tonight," Purple said as the rest of the fleet returned to formation around The Massive; the symbol of the Irken Military now burned into the Earth's surface. "I know that there was sort of an interruption…and some of you in the audience… died… But still, no refunds! Now goodnight!"

Slowly, the remaining audience members began exiting the auditorium, leaving behind a mess of empty snack bags, crushed seats, broken glass, and dead bodies in their wake. Skoodge was about to jump down from the stage and leave as well, when Tallest Red suddenly put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

"Hey Skoodge, before you head out, I need you to meet me in Secret Room #4 in about an hour."

"Oh cool! What for?"

"It's a secret, I can't tell you right now."

"Yes My Tallest, I shall head there right away!" Skoodge said with a salute has he vaulted off the stage and proceeded to run out of the room, only to trip on a dead body on the way out.

"Ow! I'm okay!" the stout invader gave a thumb's up, before pulling himself up and proceeding out the double doors. As the doors closed behind him, Purple joined Red at the edge of the stage.

"Just what are you planning, exactly?" Purple asked

"A solution to our Meekorb problem," Red said as he steepled his two fingered hands together.

"And those coordinates you gave Zim?"

"They'll lead him straight to Mortia."

"Oooh, the zombie planet. Nice touch." Purple gave a nod of agreement as he pushed a button on his communicator.

"Oh Bobby, the crowd left a slight mess in the viewing room this time, could you swing by and take care of it?"


	3. Chapter 3

Invader Zim: Might of the Empire

Chapter 3: Assembling the Team

Invader Skoodge dashed through yet another set of automatic doors as he made his way through the seemingly infinite number of rooms contained within The Massive. It sounded like the Tallest was going to tell him something important, so the stout irken was determined to find Secret Room # 4 as soon as possible.

The only problem was…

"Wait, where exactly _is_ Secret Room #4 anyway?" Skoodge asked himself as his excitement died down enough for him to realize that he had no idea where he was going- and that he was about to crash into something ahead of him.

"Ow…" the red-eyed Invader mumbled to himself as he pulled his face off of a pole that was sitting right in the middle of the walkway. After spending a few seconds shaking his head to regain focus, Skoodge realized that he had ran into a map that displayed information about the purpose that each room on The Massive served, complete with a "you are here" mark represented by the Irken Empire icon.

"Oooh, a map! This should make finding the secret room easy!" Skoodge cheered to himself as he began giving the map a lookover

"Ah! Ee! Ah! Ah! Oh! Gah!" Skoodge screamed out as he rolled down a comically long flight of stairs. Unfortunately for the red-eyed Invader, The Massive was so large and had had so many different rooms that, even if you were to carry a map with you, you might never be able to arrive at where you intended to go. As such, Skoodge had been spending the past hour traversing the many decks of the most powerful ship in the armada without coming anywhere closer to knowing where Secret Room #4 was.

"I'm… I'm okay…" Skoodge habitually said out loud as he was finally stopped by a box sitting at the bottom of the staircase. It took him a moment to pick himself up, and even longer to fight off the extreme sense of nausea that was sure to come after rolling down what must have been at least a combined total of five flights of stairs.

"Great, now where am I?" The stout irken thought to himself as he recovered enough to look around the immediate area. After glancing around at the miscellaneous boxes scattered about the narrow hallway he was now in, Skoodge caught sight of a door that had been labeled " Secret Room #4", which was directly across from a door that read "This Way to Auditorium".

"Oh. Heh heh, guess I should pay more attention to where I'm going…" Skoodge let out a sigh and entered through the marked doorway, revealing a rather small room that was just barely big enough to hold a red and black sofa set that was encircling a metallic table. Already seated in the room were two irkens; one of them was wearing an armored chest piece and shoulder pads, along with either a modification or a defect that caused his eyes to become jet black in color, and the other individual was…

"LARB!" Skoodge jumped with excitement and waved to the member of his old training team back on Devastis.

"Hey, Skoodge my man, how have you been?" The taller irken responded in kind as Skoodge made his way over to the table and to sit down next to him. "I heard you just conquered yourself a second planet! At the rate you're going, you're going to make the rest of us look bad!"

"Oh, it was nothing! Besides, all I really did was help fix up Zim's Battlemech and-"

"So, you're a friend of Zim's, huh?" The other individual in the room suddenly taking interest in what the stout irken was saying.

"Oh, yeah… Skoodge, this is Irken Elite Black." Larb said as he made an off-hand gesture to the irken sitting across the table.

"It's Commander Black, and I'm one of the top officials in the Irk Internal Security anti-insurgency division." The black-eyed irken said irritably.

"Yeah, well, it's not as cool as being an Invader," Larb said with a grin on his face. It was obvious that the two of them had had a similar conversation earlier.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Commander Black." Skoodge said with a polite nod. "Also, um… do either of you two know what's going on here?"

"Not a clue," Larb admitted. Black merely shook his head in response.

After a while, Skoodge and Larb began talking about random current events while Black simply sat back in silence and ignored the chatter that was taking place next to him. Ten minutes passed the original planned time, the door to the rest of the ship was once again opened, and Almighty Tallest Red entered the meeting room.

"Good evening, Elite Irken Soldiers. I have personally selected you three to launch a covert operation against the Meekorb." The Tallest said as he hovered over to the table and pressed a button on the edge facing him, moments later, a hologram depicting the area of space that the Irkens had designated as Sector 11 appeared in the room. On the display, the planets controlled by the Irken Empire were all colored in black and had a red Imperial icon on them, while a smaller group of planets to the right were colored white and had a blue symbol resembling three stars encircled by a diamond, designating the planets as being under the influence of the Meekorb.

"Our original plan for annexing the area was to send in Invader Tenn and have her cripple Planet Meekorb's ability to communicate with its surrounding colonies," An irken icon representing Invader Tenn traveled across the display and came to rest on top of the planet located precisely in the middle of enemy territory. "Once that had occurred, our forces would have easily been able to crush Meekorb before its colonies could send in support. Unfortunately due to a… mailing… error… Tenn's cover was blown by a package of malfunctioning SIR units," Tenn's icon now had little x's over its eyes. "We don't know who among the shipping staff had messed the delivery up, so we just had all of the labor slaves on that particular conveyor belt executed and replaced with robots."

Skoodge gulped. "Is Tenn okay?"

"For the time being," Red continued on, bringing up an image of an electronic letter signed by numerous top brass in the Meekorb Theocracy. "The Meekorb claim to be holding Invader Tenn hostage, and are demanding that we sign a treaty to establish a permanent demilitarized zone around sector 11 in return for her release. What you three will be doing is infiltrating the Meekorb's biggest Monastery-Stronghold, where Tenn's PAK system is broadcasting from, and recovering her before they can interrogate anything out of her. Once Tenn is safe in our hands, the bulk of our forces will follow up with an Organic Sweep. Any questions?"

"How are we expected to get anywhere near Meekorb space in an irken vessel?" Larb asked.

"Well, that would be a problem, IF you were going to be using an irken vessel. I made a call to the Vortian Loyalists, and they've supplied us with a pilot and a Vort transport ship similar to the ones we ordered destroyed when Invader Larb brought the planet back under our influence," Red answered as Invader Larb seemed to visibly glow with pride at the mention of his conquest. "Since they are very few of them left, the Meekorb will assume that you're a part of the "Resisty" movement and will let you pass with no questions asked."

Tallest Red powered down the hologram projector and began to make his way out of the room. "Now, unless there are any more questions, I need to prepare for the emergency meeting I've called on Deplomia. Your ship is currently docked in hanger 6, and is scheduled to depart in a week. We only have one shot at this, so don't so don't mess it-"

"WAIT!" a voice suddenly screeched out from a nearby air vent, from which a purple eyed female invader suddenly jumped out of and landed in a three point stance.

"Tak?" Skoodge asked unsure of himself. She certainly looked like the irken who had ruined the SIR contest.

"Tak?" Larb parroted.

"What? How did…you find out about…" Red was monetarily dumbstruck by the scene in front of him, before snapping out of it in a fit of rage and hailing the bridge on his communicator. "SECURITY!"

"Wait! My Tallest Please!" Tak said as she got down on her knees and begged. "All I ask for is this last chance to prove myself to you! Let me become a part of this rescue operation, and you will not be disappointed!"

"Buh… you aren't… even… You know what, fine. There's nothing in this room that I can use to shoot you, so just… fine, you can go. Just ask the others for the details… I need a donut."

With that said, Red floated out of the room, leaving the four of them to prepare for the mission in whatever fashion they saw fit.


	4. Chapter 4

Invader Zim: Might of the Empire

Chapter 4: Irkpolitik

1. No planet, moon, or other significantly large

object that is either under the control of or

marked for conquest by the Irken Empire or

one of its official allies may be repurposed for fuel

2. The Irken Empire must leave at least 10% of all

significantly large objects in a given sector aside

so that they may be repurposed for fuel.

3. The Planet Jackers get a 25% off discount on any

purchases made on Foodcortia, Cinamia, or through

Callnowia

-The Irken-Planet Jacker Treaty. Signed into law by Almighty Tallest Myuki in Irk Year 108 of the High Era

Almighty Tallest Red watched from the bridge as the replica Vort ship cleared hangar 6's gate and separated itself from the Irken Armada as soon as the fleet had entered Sector 11. As soon as the ship dropped out of the scanner's range, the Armada continued on its course towards the planet of Diplomia. Next to The Massive, Diplomia was arguably the greatest accomplishment of Tallest Myuki's reign as the head of the Irken Empire. Before she had met her untimely demise while touring Research Station Nine, it was said that her presence alone was enough to stop a battle dead in its tracks, and that if rebels were to just hear her voice, they would immediately lay down their arms and return to the factories. The late Tallest's reputation for kindness and the sheer force of charisma she wielded had attracted dozens of nearby species to either join or ally themselves with the empire, and as a result, the empire's boarders had expanded tenfold during Myuki's 125 yearlong rule. As one of her last major decrees, she had ordered a small planet in Sector 5 to be set aside as a neutral world where all of Irk's friends and followers could convene to discuss everything from trade tariffs to border disputes. Thus had the world of Diplomia had been founded, in the hopes that even after Myuki had been replaced by another, the empire would still be able to smoothly negotiate with the universe.

Since Tallest Myuki's death however, the relationship between Irk and its allies had become strained, to say the least. The fact that Myuki had died while touring the Vortian research station was suspicion enough at the time for the Irkens to end one of their longest-lasting alliances. Followed up the day after with the sudden death of Spork, the second-tallest irken in the current generation, the galaxy at large began to lose confidence in the irken leadership. Thankfully, while Tallest Red was no Myuki, he had quickly developed his own method for keeping the allied races in line. While Myuki had used kindness, persuasion, and charm to win over the hearts of others, Red was a master of brutal backroom tactics who pressured others into doing what he wanted through either bribery, blackmail, or threatening to rescind vital treaties. This strategy, while it certainly didn't make the empire very popular with its neighbors, ensured that the allied races' economies were too intertwined with Irk's to allow serious threats to develop against it.

"Sir, we've arrived at planet Diplomia… on time, I would like to add." One of the Navigators on the bridge announced as a beautiful planet with a purple sky and splotches of small, shallow seas dotting the single mega continent that covered 80% of the planet's surface.

"Excellent, have my personal Shuvver ready to launch in five." Tallest Red said as he turned from the monitoring screen and made his way out of the command center.

"Be sure to bring back some donuts!" Purple called out from his place in front of the television.

Almighty Tallest Red's Shuvver descended towards the northern half of the mega continent, landing on a grassy field just outside of a rather enormous complex that had a sort of Greco-Roman feel to it; if such a thing could be accomplished by an alien race. As soon as the ship's landing gear came into effect, the usual dozen of shock-spear wielding honor guard disembarked from the shuttle first. Once the area had been deemed clear of hostiles, the Tallest himself joined his guards on the ground, and the group proceeded towards the designated meeting place. After passing through several marbled passageways and by numerous works of art that Red didn't care for, they arrived in the great debate forum, in which the representatives of the races that had responded to the Tallest's call were already seated. During her time as the Tallest, Myuki had entertained the ideas and proposals of even the smallest of organizations in order to work out the best deal for the empire. Red however had learned that if he only took the time to deal with the major players in Irken controlled spaced, then the minor ones were sure to go along with any policy they came up with if they wanted any benefits for themselves. Sitting around the table now was the minister of foreign affairs for the Blob planet, the chief hauler of the Planet Jackers, the matron of the Crystalines, and the head scientist of the Vortian Loyalists- or as they are referred to most often in their native tongue, the "Mother Sellers". While it was true that Vort was now considered territory occupied by the Irkens and no longer an independent entitiy, the small minority of Vortian scientists who had aided Larb in his conquest of the planet still retained representation in the council of five, though they were only there because Red could always count on them to vote in his favor.

"Welcome, friends of the Irken Empire, and thank you for being able to attend this meeting on such a short notice," Red announced his arrival to the others cordially as he took his designated seat at the table, his guards standing a little ways off behind him. "I'm sure you all have read my proposal, and I would just like to start off by saying-"

"Cut to the chase, Red," The Crystalines' matron spat, her rough cut surface tinged red with irritation.

"Very well then," Red managed to keep his outward demeanor calm as he brought up a holographic list of his troop and ship requests for the whole room to see.

"Ah, quite the significant request," The vortian sitting next to Red said as he skimmed through the various regiments and fleets that had been asked for.

"Kind of a harsh response to a hostage situation, don't you think?" The blob minister said through bites of some sort of snack food.

"Whoa, whoa whoa. Who said anything about this gathering being in response to the incident with Invader Tenn?" Red said as he stood up so he could pace around while he spoke. "Even as we speak, I've prepared an elite team of three-err, four of my best soldiers to rescue Tenn and sabotage Meekorb's ability to communicate with its colonies. What I'm talking about here is the opportunity to add three more solar systems to our area of influence. The Meekorb have always been a selfish, isolationist race who never opted to trade their vast amount of resources with anyone. If we were to remove the Meekorb from the face of the galaxy, then all of their resources would become ours! More planets to settle, more fuel to burn, access for the first time to the Meekorb's unique technology," The tallest placed both hands on the table and leaned inwards towards the others. "You can't tell me your leaders would skip out on a chance like this."

The whole room was rendered silent. Red waited for a minute to let the implications of his words sink in, before pressing a button on the arm rest of his chair and taking a seat.

"I believe that now would be a good time to vote on the issue," Red said with a smug look on his face as another holographic screen replaced the first one. This one showed a tally board separated by a line down the middle. Along the topside were icons representing the five alien species who were voting. Almost immediately, the grinning Irken symbol was moved from the top of the screen and placed inside the green yes bracket, signifying the empire's support of the plan.

"We cannot pass by an opportunity to get a look at Meekorb technology and learn how it works compared to ours," The vortian said as the two crossed horns symbolizing the Vortian Technocracy predictably joined the Irken one in the yes bracket.

"The promise of more fuel is always a welcome one to the Planet Jackers," The image of a planet inside a star joined the first two icons in the yes bracket. "We will burn the Meekorb to ashes in our dying sun."

"Sounds like a good deal to me," The Blob minister added as his species' rather bland icon of a blob head joined the others, leaving only the single gem representing the Crystalines still undecided.

"I… cannot in good conscience let a chance to expand my people's economy go by, not while I can help it."

With that, the final icon disappeared and reappeared inside the green yes bracket.

"Voting is over. Result: Unanimous support." An automated voice announced through nearby loudspeakers.

"Wonderful, I expect to be in contact with your military commanders very soon," Red said as he once again rose from his seat. "We can discuss the division of the spoils in our next meeting, till then, I believe this session is over."

The honor guard quickly formed a tight box around the Tallest as he departed from the forum and returned to his personal shuttle.

"That went better than I expected," Red thought as the Shuvver took off and began its return to The Massive. "As long as my faith in those three plus Tak manage to get Invader Tenn out of the area and shut down the comms without causing too much of a commotion, then Meekorb won't stand a chance! Everything is coming together just perfectly…"


	5. Chapter 5

Invader Zim: Might of the Empire

Chapter five: Arrival

1. Shoot 'em with lasers

2. Use a big enough bomb

3. Destroy the battle suit or weapon they happen to be interfacing with.

4. Crush them between two force fields

5. Drop them in a black hole or nearby star

6. Shoot 'em with plasma

7. Blow up the planet they are currently floating on

8. Freeze 'em. Then shatter 'em

9. Say their name backwards

10. Repeatedly botch a passage from a Meekorb holy book.

11. Trap them in an energy displacement field

a bad joke.

-Page 12,358 of the Irken Soldier training manual. Entitled: A dozen ways to kill a meekorb.

The replica vortian ship darted around various bits of space debris as the infiltration team neared Meekorb territory. Sitting in a modified command chair, the Vortian Loyalist pilot was busy desperately trying to monitor of all of the ship's systems by himself. A special visor the horned-alien wore that was designed to streamline data being displayed from multiple sources into a format that was easier for the individual to understand, made the task theoretically doable- although not easily doable.

A chunk of rock broken off some asteroid crashed into the side of the ship, causing a slight dent in the haul and giving the interior a good shake.

"Hey, vortian, can we not die before we even _get_ to planet Meekorb?" Larb complained as he looked up from the game of Oppression he was playing with Skoodge over at a lounge area situated one terrace above from where the pilot was sitting.

"So. Hard. To. Fly. Ship. without help." The pilot, who happened to be named Ir Aug, managed to say through gritted his teeth as he tried to avoid more incoming space junk. "Should. Have. Asked. For Drones-"

The ship suddenly veered hard to the left, narrowly avoiding a collision with a huge piece of scrap metal.

"… So, you were just about to explain that implant in your face…" Commander Black said as the ship leveled out again.

"Oh this? It's a little thing called an Overrider, it channels a command thought by me at a target that I focus on. If the target is a week willed fool, then it is forced to do my bidding."

Tak glanced over from the separate table that she and Black were sitting at towards the game Skoodge and Larb were playing. She glared at the pair, focusing her mind on the two Invaders as Larb drew his hand of cards.

"All in!" Larb suddenly declared. Pushing his pile of monies to the center of the table.

"…Impressive…" Black said after a slight pause.

"Normally these things cost a small fortune and are reserved for slave-labor overseers, but I managed to find and an old one while I was sente- working on Planet Dirt. With my SIR unit MIMI's help, I managed to get it repaired and implanted."

"Speaking of which, where is your SIR unit? I only saw those other two load theirs onto the ship."

"That's because it was DESTROYED!" Tak slammed her fist onto the table. "Destroyed in my fight with that, INCOMPETENT! BUMBLING Excuse for an Invader known as Zim!"

"She's also not technically an Invader, so even if she did have a SIR, she had to have built it from scrap." Larb added in unhelpfully. Tak responded with a truly frightening glare, which was quickly followed by Larb slugging himself in the face and falling backwards in his seat, creating an enormous bruise in the dead center of his forehead.

"Ow!" Larb screamed as he picked himself up, only to see that Skoodge had just placed four cards on the table. Each one depicting one of the four most recent Almighty Tallests, including the current duo of Red and Purple.

"I won!" Skoodge cheered to himself as he dragged Larb's generous pile of monies to his side of the table and began stacking the coins in little mini towers according to their size and value.

Tak began to focus on the stout invader, before the black-eyed irken interrupted her focus by talking.

"Let the little guy keep his monies, he won them fair and square."

"… Very well. He's nowhere near as annoying as the taller one anyways." Tak admitted grudgingly as she turned her head to look out of the front viewport.

* * *

><p>A meekorb with yellow forehead markings quickly traveled through a series of pure white hallways that had many branching off paths packed full of other meekorb observing random statistical information being displayed on several huge screens. The energy being weaved his way through the crowd, bobbing up and town to accommodate for the large influx of traffic that plagued the Monastery-Stronghold at this time of day. He passed by many individuals that he recognized as friends or acquaintances, but he had no time to stop by and make small talk for a bit. He was needed in Interrogation Room 1, in regards to the "incident" the Celestials didn't want to make public yet.<p>

"Irkens," The meekorb thought as he made a turn down a declining slope and approached a vault-like door that was guarded by two blue-marked individuals. "Such violent and soulless creatures. To think what could have happened if that one hadn't lost control of its minions…"

He stopped for a moment and shook his head in order to ward off a string of dreadful thoughts from entering his mind. Once the stream of dark images ceased, the meekorb continued on his way towards the sealed door. After passing a message off to one of the guards, the guard flew into the sealed door; and, after a few seconds, the door began to glow slightly. As the glow grew in intensity, gears within the locking mechanism began to turn, and the door swung open, revealing a room that was poorly lit for a Meekorb facility. Once the door was fully swung open, the yellow marked meekorb floated into the dark room, where the prisoner was currently being suspended from the ceiling by a series of wires that had been wound around her limbs. The irken in question appeared to be female, judging from the curled antennae and the presence of eyelashes- something the males of the species generally lacked. Other than that though, the Meekorb had failed to learn anything else about her, due to an unexpected feature getting in the way of the interrogation process.

"Hey, hey you over there!" The irken muttered as green blood ran down past her eyes from various cuts along the surface of her face. "When I get out of here I'm gonna… I'm gonna… w-why are you a fish now?"

"So she's still-"

"Under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs, sir" A meekorb with a red-mark on his forehead said as he looked over a set of screens displaying the prisoner's vital signs. "Approximately every five hours, the device on her back injects another dose of the serum into her system. We've tried jamming the device numerous times, but to no effect."

"I see. And is the device still flashing that red light periodically?"

"Yes sir, we haven't been able to shut that down either."

"Heh heh heh, you fish are in so much trouble when the big…red…thing gets over here," Tenn broke out in a burst of hysteric laughter for a moment, before yawning and closing her eyes.

"Don't let her fall asleep." The yellow mark ordered, and a slight electric pulse was sent down the wire suspending the irken off the ground.

"Buh?" Tenn suddenly blurted out as her eyes shot open again.

"Sir, has there been any response from the Irkens yet?"

"No, the Celestials are beginning to fear that the Empire has abandoned this one. That, or they're planning an assault soon. In either case, Father Bauld'Ur will be sending a high alert warning to all of our colonies if we don't receive a response within the next 24 hours."

Just then, the door unlocked and slid open again, revealing another red marked meekorb.

"Captain Ashar, our scanners have picked up an outsider vessel approaching the Core System. Judging from its design, it must be a Vortian Type 34."

"It must be a Resisty ship then, our enemy destroyed all of the vortian ships that were still on the planet. Allow them passage to the stronghold's docking bay, they must have sent us another shipment of supplies."

"Right away sir," The red mark said with a nod as he headed back down the hallway.

"Now that that's out of the way, we may resume trying to overcome this unexpected…problem… So, does anyone here happen to have any-"

"Hey! Hey A'haaaa, the floor's melting again… you should fix that." Tenn said to the meekorb captain as another burst of laughter overcame her.

* * *

><p>"I'm telling you guys, my plan cannot fail!" Tak yelled as she slammed a metal pointer at the screen displaying dozens of different diagrams- with at least one of them labeled as 'prove to the Tallest that I deserve to be recognized as an Invader'.<p>

"We aren't going with the plan that the Invader who missed her exams came up with, my plan is loads better than yours!" Larb, who now was holding an icepack to his head retorted as used his free hand to drag a chalkboard next to where he was standing. His plan was several steps simpler than Tak's, and ended with a drawing of him standing in front of a crowd being praised by hundreds of irkens.

"Uh, Larb, Where are we gonna get a plasma battle tank?" Skoodge pointed out after skimming through the collection of chalk markings. "We can always go with my plan!" Skoodge said as he unrolled a scroll of paper, at the bottom of which was an above average black and white drawing of the four of them plus Tenn going out for ice cream once the above steps had been completed.

The three of them bickered back and forth four at least twenty minutes, before the ship suddenly swerved again and knocked everyone off balance.

"Sorry," Aug said as the ship leveled out again. "Also, we've been cleared for landing at the southern monastery, so you guys should probably figure out what you're going to do or we're all going to die as soon as they come and inspect the ship."

"The pilot has a point," Commander Black spoke for the first time since the other three had gone off to write up their plans. "Maybe you three should just vote on which plan to use. It looks like they could all technically work, so I don't care either way"

"I vote for mine!" They all immediately called out, before Tak glared at Larb again.

"I change my vote to Tak's!" Larb suddenly blurted out, only realizing what he had just said a few moments too late.

"Excellent, my plan it is then!" Tak said as she used her pointer to zoom in on various diagrams on the screen. "Here's how it will go. First, I, since I'm the only one here who can actually pull of a convincing disguise, will pose as a vortian representative of the "Resisty" and help our pilot oversee the unloading of the gift that Almighty Tallest Red had been so kind as to give us for this mission. "While that's happening, the three of you will take the SIR units with you and use them to lock on to the emergency recovery signal that Tenn's PAK is emmiting and break her out of wherever she is being held prisoner. Once you have a confirmed sighting of her, send me a message and I'll unleash the gift onto our enemy, which should give me plenty of time to sneak over to the communications tower and shut the whole place down. Have the ship ready for takeoff by the time I get back, because I don't want to get caught in the mess that is sure to happen once the Meekorb higher ups realize what's going on."

"Uh, question. Why do you get to do all of the cool parts of the plan?" Larb asked.

"Because it's MY plan and YOU voted for it, so quit complaining." Tak said as she pressed a button on a device on her wrist. Almost instantly, her irken form had been replaced with that of a vortian with smaller horns and lighter skin than that of their pilot and dressed in a sort of dull workman's uniform. "Now everyone go down to the cargo level, grab a weapon, and find somewhere to hide. We're going to have company over shortly."


	6. Chapter 6

Invader Zim: Might of the Empire

Chapter Six: Metal Gear Irken

The vortian ship dived down into the atmosphere of Meekorb, passing over a city of pure white towers, streets, and bridges, before coming in sight the of equally bright and shiny monastery–stronghold. The irken infiltrators made a mental note of how obsessed the meekorb race seemed to be with making everything they owned white, before Aug started up the landing procedures. They had been cleared to land in the main docking bay, and had been told that an escort had already been arranged to meet them. Once the ship had neatly parked itself within the sheltered outcropping in the stronghold's walls, Tak waved the others to get into position, and checked her reflection real quick to insure that her disguise was still working.

Surrounding the landing pad were about a half dozen meekorb soldiers, who all floated unmoving in the air, waiting patiently for the door to the ship to open on its own. Soon enough, a crack opened up on the sides of the ship, revealing a staircase as well as two vortians who immediately began walking down the steps once the stairs had come into contact with the ground.

"Greetings, most esteemed allies," A meekorb with a black mark on his forehead said as he moved slightly in front of the rest of the escort. "The people of Meekorb are honored to welcome the members of the Resisty movement into our home."

"I am honored to be here," The fairer-skinned one said with a flawless smile. "My name is Kat Rell, captain of one of the few Type 34 ships remaining in the universe. We have heard that tension between the Empire and the Meekorb has risen in light of recent events, and have come baring gifts in hopes that they will serve you well should the need arise."

"The Meekorb will graciously accept any gift given from a friend, we shall have some cargo suits come by immediately and help you in in the unloading process. Until then, please follow Chaplain Orz, who has been selected to extend to you an offer of a guided tour around the facility."

"I accept this offer," Kat said with a nod, as she began to follow a gray-marked meekorb away from the landing pad. Soon after the tour group had departed, a pair of bipedal robots began to approach the now-open entrance to the ship's cargo hold, inside were two large metal crates, which the machines grabbed ahold of with their metal claws, and began hauling them off in a different direction towards a nearby temporary storage area. After both crates had been placed inside, one of the suits pressed a button on the nearby wall, closing the storeroom off.

"Okay, I think it's clear"

All of a sudden, the top side of the left crate burst open, and three irkens and two SIR units all armed to the teeth suddenly hit the ground with various degrees of coordination and grace- which is to say, Skoodge landed on his head.

"Are you quite alright, master?" One of the SIR units inquired in a voice highly reminiscent of an old British servant. Skoodge found the standard cold, uncaring tone of the SIR unit default voice to be rather intimidating, so he had picked up a personality chip before he had gone off to conquer Blorch.

"I'm okay, Chipz," Skoodge announced as he picked himself up and grabbed his laser rifle.

Commander Black put his ion pistol in its holster and took out a miniature device, which quickly began displaying a blueprint diagram of this part of the stronghold, along with a flashing red dot that was placed a few rooms away from them and down some obscure hallway.

"Alright, I got past the Meekrob security system and got us a map of the surrounding area. It looks like Tenn's recovery beacon is still active; it's broadcasting from a few rooms to the south of us."

"Huh, good thing that the Meekorb run the same operating system that we do." Larb mused as he stepped in closer to get a look at the diagram itself.

"You know, Tenn's beacon has been active for a long time even though they've had her in custody, it might be a trap." Skoodge added in after getting a good look at the map himself.

"That's a good point, I never considered that until now," Black said with a nod.

"We should split up into two groups, one to go straight for the signal, and the other to go investigate other potential holding areas." Larb suggested. "I was thinking that me and my SIR could do some digging around while you three go and take the bait."

"… Wait, why do we have to take the bait?" Skoodge asked.

"Because it was my idea. Bye now!" Larb said as he and his SIR unit suddenly bolted into a nearby air vent that was both conveniently next to the ground and big enough for Larb to crawl through and his SIR to still be able to walk through unhindered.

"…Well, we probably all shouldn't take the air vent, it would increase the chance of us being noticed."

"Don't worry Black, I have a plan that should let us simply walk down the hallways unnoticed!" Skoodge said as he went to reach for something still inside the crates that had carried them in.

* * *

><p>A bush with a single fake white flower crudely attached to it slid along the ground, slowly making its way down the seemingly endless line off hallways when it seemed that no one was looking at it in particular<p>

"No. Fucking. Way." Black commented from underneath their "concealment" as they inched ever closer to their destination. "How the hell is this idea of yours working?"

"Oh, I've done this dozens of times before, it was my main way of being sneaky back on Blorch. You'd be surprised at how easily people sometimes miss picking up on things that should be out of place."

"But we're inside a _building _for Tallest sakes. There shouldn't be a bush just in the middle of the walkway inside a building _ever!_"

"Look, it's working, okay? Don't question the Stealth Bush." Skoodge said as the bush stopped its forward movement momentarily as a periscope popped out of Chipz' head just enough for Skoodge to get a better look at where he was going. "So, do we turn down this hallway, or the one after this?"

"Hang on," Black took out his device again and looked at where an Irken symbol, representing them, was in comparison to where the blinking light was. "Yeah, it's the next one up."

"Got it." Skoodge closed up the periscope and began pushing the bush forward again. After passing underneath the floating bodies of the nearby personnel for nearly twenty minutes, they arrived at the doorway the rescue beacon was broadcasting behind, coming to a stop right in front of two blue-marked meekorb guards.

"huh, who left that bush there?"

"Whatever man, someone will come by and pick it up later, just focus on guarding the door."

Commander Black smacked his palm into his face upon hearing that conversation. How could no one see this as being really suspicious?

"Crap. I forgot that the Stealth Bush has one major flaw: it cannot get past closed doors." Skoodge muttered as he turned to face the others. "Now what?"

"The end of this hallway is pretty far away from the main passage, we could just try and kill them both before anyone has a chance to notice." Chipz offered.

"Seems like our best option right now," Black said as he drew his ion pistol, and Skoodge picked up his rifle and Chipz deployed a multitude of hidden weapons from his head. "On three, one. Two…"

"Dude, is that bush talking?"

"What? Bushes can't talk, maybe you should stop taking extra shifts-"

"Three!" Black yelled as he, Skoodge and Chipz simultaneously leapt out from under their "concealment" and proceed to unload generous amounts of firepower into the two completely unsuspecting guards, who were reduced to nothing more than a patch of air with a slightly elevated temperature in no time at all

"…I think we overdid it," Skoodge said as he noted that the meekorb targets had been completely dissipated.

"Eh, it's fine." Black took a look at the closed door in front of him, it had no obvious handle and no nearby number pad to put a code in. "I can't seem to find a way to open this door."

"It might require a meekorb to interface with it before it can open," Skoodge stated matter of factually. "But, since we can't do that, I guess I can see if Chipz can open it. Chipz, open the door please."

"Yes, master. It will only take me a moment."

A sudden massive wall of force crashed into the sealed door, sending the block of metal flying off its hinges and flying right through the trio of technicians that oversaw the prisoner's vitals. Fortunately for them, they, being beings of pure energy, were able to phase through solid objects. Unfortunately for them, the door was quickly followed up by a storm of laser beams, which they couldn't phase through. As the technicians dissipated into the air around them, Skoodge, Black, and Chipz entered the interrogation room.

"Hehehehehehehe, energy people got shredded… like paper, or-hehehehe- a paper cup!" A rather disturbed sounding voice echoed around the room, Skoodge turned away from the area where the technicians were and met the seriously unfocused eyes of none other than Invader Tenn.

"Tenn! You're alright!" Skoodge cheered and ran over towards where she was being suspended from the ceiling and extended a PAK leg to cut her lose. Tenn fell limply into the stout invaders arms, unable to stop her giggling the whole way down.

"Oh, you're hurt pretty badly," Skoodge remarked concernedly when he got a better look at all of the cuts and bruises she had scattered across her body. "Chipz, medical procedure #3 please."

"Yes, sir!" Chipz said with a salute as Skoodge laid Tenn gently on the ground and the SIR unit got to work. After the whirlwind of hyper-fast first aid work had subsided, Tenn was now wrapped up from head to foot in bandages, reeked of decontaminants, and had a smiley face sticker stuck to her forehead which read: Get Well Soon. Apparently some time during the first aid process, Tenn had fallen asleep, probably because the Meekorb had kept her forcibly awake for some time now.

Skoodge bent down and gently picked Tenn up and placed her on his shoulder, then pressed a certain button on the top part of her PAK, causing the continuous red light to stop flashing.

"Hey, Skoodge. She sounded a little… unstable just now," Black said as they began walking towards the exit. "Will she be okay?"

"Oh, she should be fine. She was probably just acting that way because of the anti-interrogation drugs her pack would have been giving her. They used to be standard issue in all PAKs, but apparently some rank and file soldiers learned how to… abuse the feature, so now only Invader PAKs get that addon. Itt'l wear off in a few hours."

"Right, well, everyone in the facility probably heard our little entrance, so why don't we call up the others and tell them we found Tenn. We could probably really use that present now…"

* * *

><p>"-And this is our contemplation hall, where we meekorb spend about an hour a day reflecting on the events that have occurred." Orz said as he gestured- well, the meekorb really can't gesture, being made of energy, but you get the idea- to a room completely drenched in meekorb religious imagery existing in every way, shape, or form that you could possibly contemplate. There were finely cut statues, paintings, tapestries, even the floor, roof, and support beams were covered in meekorb letters and symbols.<p>

"Hmm, fascinating, yes…" Kat said through a perfect mask of interest. How long were those fools going to take to rescue Tenn? They didn't have long before the assault began, and they needed to get out of here, fast.

Kat's communicator, which had been set to vibrate so that it would offer some level of silence but still be able to be answered went off, and a grin started to spread across the projection of a vortian's face. She slowly brought up a device on her wrist, and pressed the big red button in the dead center.

After spending another few minutes having the meaning behind every single item on display explained to her, A yellow marked meekorb suddenly arrived and interrupted whatever Orz had been saying at the time.

"Chaplain!" The new arrival yelled, distress clearly noticeable in his words. "There has been an attack on the interrogation room, the prisoner has been released! Also, there have been multiple reports of heavy fire coming from inside the storeroom just beyond the primary docking station! All units are to go and put a stop to the insurgents!"

"I'll be on my way!" Orz responded as the yellow-mark already began to head back to the lower level. "Well Lady Rell, I'm afraid that we must cut our tour her short. I trust that you'll be able to make your way back on your own?"

"Oh, don't worry-"

_Bang. Bang. Bang._

-I'm sure I can find my way around now."

Orz could feel his incorporeal form be forced apart in places by the laser blasts. He couldn't bring the moving particles to reconnect, and his vision had begun to grow blurry.

"Urk… Lady Rell, why? Why have you done this?" The dying meekorb managed to turn himself around, only to see the vortian he thought was visiting suddenly fade, revealing a female irken.

"Long live the Empire!" She hissed as she fired another bolt of energy straight through his head manifestation, causing his existence to dissipate into the air around them as heat.

**Author's note**: Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has read so far, and especially to Haku1013 for constantly commenting on my work. What will happen next? Will the entire team make it out in time before Tallest Red's assault on the system begins? Will Tenn eventually get off her meds? Will we learn what exactly Red's "present" to Meekorb contained? Will we actually learn what the hell Larb's been doing this entire time? Will GIR grow a mustache? Find out the answers to some of these questions next time, during the exciting conclusion of the first story arc of Invader Zim: Might of the Empire! Which should be up by this weekend if not earlier :)

Also, I love comments/critiques, so please send more of them.


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